The Akufo-Addo administration has re-affirmed Ghana’s commitment to fight money laundering, terrorism financing, proliferation and other transnational crimes by collaborating with ECOWAS member states.
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, made the observation when he delivered the keynote address at the opening ceremony of a training workshop organised by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), last Monday.
The four-day workshop (March 20-24, 2017), is being attended by representatives from West Africa (comprising ECOWAS members states and Sao Tome and Principe), Central Africa GABAC member states) and Southern Africa (Angola).
Representatives from countries including China, Turkey, United Kingdom and France are also in attendance.
It is aimed at placing participants in a better stead as regional experts or assessors for the GIABA second round of Mutual Evaluations in West and Central Africa.
According to Mr. Ofori-Atta, “Government of Ghana has taken a serious note of the National Risk Assessment (NRA) Report on Ghana,” and added that it was seriously working towards the implementation of the Action Plan.
He expressed the hope that measures to address gaps and other strategic deficiencies to be identified in the 2nd round Mutual Evaluation Report would be consolidated into the NRA Action Plan for complete and effective implementation.
The IMC, the finance minister disclosed, would subsequently issue a policy document.
In his estimation, there was always a relationship between the NRA and the Mutual Evaluation Exercise.
To this end, Mr. Ofori-Atta suggested that the NRA help in the identification of a country’s risk profile. The NRA, he explained, should help in the identification of a country’s risk profile.
“The NRA should help the assessed country to prioritise the identified risks; provide the assessed country with measures to mitigate the risks by the development of a policy at the national (IMC) level and subsequently an Action Plan or Strategy to deal with the identified strategic deficiencies,” he advised.
For his part, Director General of GIABA, Mr. Adama Coulibaly, disclosed that the second round of mutual evaluations are based on the FATF Revised Standards of 2012 and 2013 New Methodology for Assessing Technical Compliance with the FATF recommendations and effectiveness of AML/CFT systems.
The revised standards, he said, take into account the evolving threats to the international financial system and the lessons learned from the implementation and evaluation of the 40+9 recommendations.
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